Albert Marth Discovered Penguin and Egg Nebulae March 3, 1864

Summary: Albert Marth discovered the Penguin and the Egg nebulae March 3, 1864, as numbers 175 and 176 of 600 nebulae he detected from 1863 to 1865 in Malta.

interacting spiral galaxies NGC 2936 and 2937 (Albert Marth's numbers 175 and 176, respectively), nicknamed the Penguin and the Egg, with unrelated background galaxy (blue stream, upper center); combining infrared and visible light ranges to produce image necessitated obtaining data from Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes: Courtesy NASA-ESA/STScI/AURA/JPL-Caltech, May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

Nineteenth-century German astronomer Albert Marth discovered the Penguin and the Egg nebulae March 3, 1864, as numbers 175 and 176 of 600 nebulae that he detected from 1863 to 1865 in Malta.

In 1863, Albert Marth (May 5, 1828-Aug. 6, 1897) journeyed to the Mediterranean island country of Malta (officially: Republic of Malta; Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta) to make celestial observations as an assistant to 19th-century English merchant and astronomer William Lassell (June 18, 1799-Oct. 5, 1880).

Marth made nebular observations via a telescope that his employer had constructed between 1859 and 1860 for his observatory at his mansion, Bradstones, near Liverpool, according to Lassell's report, "Observations of Planets and Nebulae at Malta," published in 1867 in Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (vol. XXXVI, page 1). He designed the Newton reflector telescope with a four-foot aperture, a 37-inch focal length and an equatorial mount. When Lassell relocated to the Maltese archipelago in 1861, he installed the telescope on the grounds of his residence in Valletta (Maltese: il-Belt Valletta), the Maltese capital located in the South East Region of the archipelago's largest island, Malta.

Marth's first and last nebular observations on Malta via Lassell's 48-inch telescope occurred Saturday, June 6, 1863, and Saturday, March 25, 1865, according to German astrophysicist Wolfgang Steinicke's brief Marthian biography, "Albert Marth Ein Deutscher in Englands Diensten," posted on Astronomie.de -- Der Treffpunkt für Astronomie website. Marth discovered two proximitous galaxies on March 3, 1864, according to American astronomer Courtney Seligman in the "NGC Objects" section of his "Celestial Atlas," published on his website (cseligman.com Website of Professor of Astronomy & Author Courtney Seligman). The close galaxies appeared as numbers 175 and 176 in "A Catalogue of new Nebula discovered at Malta, with the Four-foot Equatoreal in 1863 to 1865," published by Marth's employer, William Lassell, in 1867 in Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society as the third of three Malta-based observational reports (XXXVI, page 61).

Marth positioned number 175 on astronomy's imaginary celestial sphere at right ascension 9 hours (h) 30 minutes (m) 26 seconds (s) and North Polar Distance (NPD) 86 38, with 1860 as his reference epoch. Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol α) functions as the celestial equivalent of terrestrial longitude. North Polar Distance, also known as codeclination, concerns the angular distance of a celestial object on its hour circle, or meridian, from the north celestial pole. North Polar Distance compares with declination (abbreviated dec; symbol δ), which equates to geographic latitude. Marth situated number 176 at right ascension 9h 30m 27s and NPD 86 38. The absence of nearby celestial objects allowed Marth to verify his identifications of the galactic companions.

Danish-Irish astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer (Feb. 13, 1852-Sep. 14, 1926) listed Marth's galactic companions as NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 in his New General Catalogue, published in 1888. Dreyer’s catalogue assigned NGC (New General Catalog) numbers to discoveries and observations by Sir William Herschel (Nov. 15, 1738-Aug. 25, 1822); his son, Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (March 7, 1792-May 11, 1871); his sister, Caroline Herschel (March 16, 1750-Jan. 9, 1848); and other observational astronomers, including Albert Marth.

Marth's summary descriptions of numbers 175 and 176 assessed his new discoveries as "v F, irr. R" and "F, S, like neb. *," respectively. Marth's descriptions accorded with the notation and brief descriptions established by John Herschel's list of abbreviations (pages 11-12) in "Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars," published in 1864 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Marth's descriptive summaries translate as "very faint, irregularly round" for number 175 (NGC 2936) and as "faint, small, like a nebulous star" for number 176 (NGC 2937).

NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 are located in Hydra the Sea Serpent, the largest of the 88 IAU (International Astronomical Union)-approved modern constellations. Equatorial coordinates for NGC 2936 are right ascension of 09h 37m 44.148s, declination of plus 02 degrees (d) 45 minutes (m) 38.95 seconds (s), for epoch J2000.00 (Julian epoch, Jan. 1, 2000, noon Universal Time [UT]; Julian Date [JD] 2451545.0), according to NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). Equatorial coordinates for NGC 2937 are right ascension of 09h 37m 45.032s, declination of plus 02d 44m 50.53s.

The NED Database classifies NGC 2936 with a galaxy morphology of irregular and NGC 2937 as an elliptical galaxy. Irregular galaxies have undefined shapes while elliptical galaxies have "circular to very elongated" shapes, according to "Hubble's Galaxies," last updated Jan. 13, 2023, by page editor Andrea Gianopoulos for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope mission.

Galactic interactors NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 are nicknamed the Penguin and the Egg, respectively, according to NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) web developer and editor Tony Greicius in "The Penguin and the Egg," published Feb. 1, 2018, as the image feature for NASA's Spitzer Telescope mission. The gravitational interaction between the two galaxies has transformed NGC 2936 from a spiral galaxy comprising a flat disc with spiral arms to an irregular galaxy with an undefined shape that "bears an uncanny resemblance to a penguin guarding an egg."

NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 appear as Arp 142 in The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a catalog of 338 unusual galaxies published by American astronomer Halton Christian "Chip" Arp (March 21, 1927-Dec. 28, 2013) in 1966. Arp 142 exemplifies "material emanating from e [elliptical] galaxies" (Figure 3).

An eventual merger of the Penguin and the Egg will intermingle their respective "populations of stars, gas and dust" into a single galaxy, observes Tony Greicius.

Albert Marth discovered galactic companions NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 March 3, 1864, via William Lassell's 48-inch aperture, 37-inch focal length, equatorially mounted Newtonian reflector telescope at Valletta, Malta; Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. XXXVI Being the Quarto Volume for the Season 1866-1867 (1867), frontispiece: via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts)

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

interacting spiral galaxies NGC 2936 and 2937 (Albert Marth's numbers 175 and 176, respectively), nicknamed the Penguin and the Egg, with unrelated background galaxy (blue stream, upper center); combining infrared and visible light ranges to produce image necessitated obtaining data from Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes: Courtesy NASA-ESA/STScI/AURA/JPL-Caltech, May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22092

Albert Marth discovered galactic companions NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 March 3, 1864, via William Lassell's 48-inch aperture, 37-inch focal length, equatorially mounted Newtonian reflector telescope at Valletta, Malta; Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. XXXVI Being the Quarto Volume for the Season 1866-1867 (1867), frontispiece: via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/MmRAS/0036//0000001,001.html; Harvard University, Public Domain, Google-digitized, via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044077080869&seq=6; Indiana University, Public Domain, Google-digitized, via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000088849744&seq=8; Princeton University, Public Domain, Google-digitized, via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101082382126&seq=12&view=1up; University of Michigan, Public Domain, Google-digitized, via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015038795434&seq=8; University of Minnesota, Public Domain, Google-digitized, via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951000611449e&seq=8; via Google Books Read free of charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Memoirs_of_the_Royal_Astronomical_Societ/Q6wRAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

For further information:

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Available @ https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/william-lassell

astro.vaporia.com. "epoch J2000.0 (J2000.0, J2000) (noon 1/1/2000 GMT as used as a time reference)." Astrophysics.
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Clerke, Agnes Mary. "Lassell, William." Pages 160-161. In: Sidney Lee, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXXII Lambe to Leigh. New York: Macmillan and Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1892.
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Available via Wikisource @ https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Lassell,_William

Dreyer, J.L.E. (John Louis Emil). “No. 673.” In: “A New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, Being the Catalogue of the Late Sir John F.W. Herschel, Bart., Revised, Corrected, and Enlarged.” Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. XLIX, part I: 31. London, England: Royal Astronomical Society, 1888.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435078053089
Available via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435078053089&view=1up&seq=94&size=125
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435078053089?urlappend=%3Bseq=94%3Bownerid=13510798903399317-98
Available @ https://ia800501.us.archive.org/14/items/newgeneralcatalo00dreyrich/newgeneralcatalo00dreyrich.pdf

Dreyer, J.L.E. (John Louis Emil). "Obituary Notice Albert Marth." Astronomische Nachrichten, band 144, no. 3446, 14 (1897): 223.
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1897AN....144..223L
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1897AN....144..223L

Gianopoulos, Andrea. "Hubble's Galaxies." NASA > Hubble Space Telescope > Discoveries. Last updated Jan. 13, 2023.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/content/discoveries-hubbles-galaxies

Greicius, Tony. "The Penguin and the Egg." NASA > Image Feature > Spitzer Telescope. Feb. 1, 2018. Last updated April 26, 2018.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia22092/the-penguin-and-the-egg

Herschel, Sir John Frederick William. “Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. Received October 16, -- Read November 19, 1863.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the Year MDCCCLXIV [1864]. Vol. 154: 1-137. London, England: Taylor and Francis, MDCCCLXV (1865).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library (Natural History Museum Library, London) @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/54093164
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/108864

Herschel, Sir John Frederick William. "Explanation and arrangement of the Catalogue: The abbreviations employed in the column of descriptions and elsewhere, in the notes, &tc., are as follows. . . ." Pages 11-12. In: “Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. Received October 16, -- Read November 19, 1863.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the Year MDCCCLXIV [1864]. Vol. 154: 1-137. London, England: Taylor and Francis, MDCCCLXV (1865).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library (Natural History Museum Library, London) @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/54093174
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/108864

Hubble Space Telescope. "This cosmic penguin, guarding its celestial egg, is formally known as Arp 142, object number 142 in Halton Arp’s 1966 “Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.” The penguin and egg are actually two interacting galaxies 23 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. The penguin, which was probably once a normal-looking spiral galaxy, has been distorted by the gravitational pull between it and the egg, an elliptical galaxy. The two galaxies will eventually merge to form a single galaxy. This image was made by combining visible light data from the Hubble Space Telescope with infrared light data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. https://go.nasa.gov/2FxZXVl #PeculiarHubble #CosmicCollisions." Facebook. March 23, 2018.
Available via Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/HubbleTelescope/photos/this-cosmic-penguin-guarding-its-celestial-egg-is-formally-known-as-arp-142-obje/10156254340799808/
Available via Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/HubbleTelescope/posts/10156254340799808/

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Available via Google Books Read Free of Charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Memoirs_of_the_Astronomical_Society_of_L/WbY7AQAAMAAJ
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/MmRAS/0036//0000045.000.html
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1867MmRAS..36...45L

Lassell, William. "No. 175 R.A. 30h 26m 1860. P.D. 86° 38' Summary Description v F, irr. R Date when First Found 1864.17 ver." Page 61. In: "A Catalogue of New Nebulæ discovered at Malta with the Four-foot Equatoreal in 1863 to 1865. Read November 9, 1866." Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. XXXVI Being the Quarto Volume for the Season 1866-1867: 53-75.
Available via Google Books Read Free of Charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Memoirs_of_the_Astronomical_Society_of_L/WbY7AQAAMAAJ
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/MmRAS/0036//0000045.000.html
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1867MmRAS..36...45L

Lassell, William. "No. 176 R.A. 30h 27m 1860. P.D. 86° 38' Summary Description F, S, like neb. * Date when First Found 1864.17 ver." Page 61. In: "A Catalogue of New Nebulæ discovered at Malta with the Four-foot Equatoreal in 1863 to 1865. Read November 9, 1866." Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. XXXVI Being the Quarto Volume for the Season 1866-1867: 53-75.
Available via Google Books Read Free of Charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Memoirs_of_the_Astronomical_Society_of_L/WbY7AQAAMAAJ
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/MmRAS/0036//0000045.000.html
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1867MmRAS..36...45L

Lassell, William. "Observations of Planets and Nebulæ at Malta. Read November 9, 1866." Pages 1-32. Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. XXXVI. Being the Quarto Volume for the Session 1866-1867. London: Published by the Society, 1867.
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West Derby Society. "William Lassell, West Derby Astronomer: New Booklet. . . . Lassell was a wealthy brewer and amateur astronomer. He used large telescopes built in his own workshops to make important discoveries. These included discovering Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, and two moons of Uranus, Ariel and Umbriel. Lassell is best known locally for living at Bradstones, a large house later hosting George Henry Lee’s sports club, controversially demolished in 1972. He had previously lived in a house appropriately called Starfield, near the junction of Boundary Lane and West Derby Rd. Lassell was based in Malta between 1861 and 1865, continuing his astronomical studies. Upon returning to England, he moved to Maidenhead in Berkshire where he continued his observations. . . ."
Available via Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/182718765141986/photos/a.313930748687453/4564914736922345/
Available via Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/182718765141986/posts/4564914736922345/